Autonomous education is going on apace here. I generally feel as though I am failing to provide anything much at all, but fortunately Tamsin is mostly just getting on with it on her own. I mean, I don't get up in the morning with several resources planned and close at hand to tempt her with, or ideas of what we are going to do, but stuff happens anyway, thank goodness!
So this morning we got up in a relatively leisurely fashion after another rough night with Isabelle - she's got a laryngitis sort of thing with high temps often at night and much coughing and hoarseness, so she's been fed at night again a couple of times (well, I can't refuse a poorly sick baby) and is already expecting it more and more ... CBeebies accompanied breakfast as usual but Tamsin also found a Letterland alphabet sounds activity book which she started working through (too easy for her really, but it gave her a little handwriting practice for each letter) and then off we went to the mums' group at church where I and T both stayed in the creche.
I must digress here to comment on the newly-politically-correct version of Letterland. Has anyone else noticed? Fireman Fred has become Firefighter Fred (okay, I can see why they've done that); Hairy Hat Man has become Harry Hat Man, (mustn't comment on personal appearance???); Lucy Lamp Lady has become Lucy Lamp Light (huh?); Naughty Nick has become Noisy Nick (mustn't damage children by labelling them as naughty!!); Poor Peter has become Peter Puppy (erm, too sad for our delicate little children?); Robber Red has become Red Robot (originally a poor role model??); Ticking Tess has become Talking Tess, Vase of Violets is now Vicky Violet, Water Witch is Walter Walrus and Max and Maxine have become Fix-it Max!!! So what is that all about? I think we'll just stick with the originals - I don't see Tamsin having been very traumatised by it so far!
Isabelle fell asleep on the way home and I wasn't feeling too great what with the mastitis etc so I had a lie-down for 20 minutes until she woke herself up coughing and had to be retrieved.
After lunch I felt I had to actually engage with the girls a bit, despite still feeling naff, so I got a big lump of clay out that we were given when we visited friends who own a pottery a few weeks ago. Tamsin was more interested in carrying on with the Letterland activity book, but when I launched in and started making a clay Easter Bunny, she said she wanted to make a horse, so I helped a little with that. I also took a hand-print from Isabelle, although it's not very deep so I don't know how it will cope with drying out. I then provided Isabelle with some 'sensory play' in the form of some gloop, which she wasn't very interested in and merely dipped one finger in, looked at it curiously, offered it to me to suck (I declined!) and went back to trying to grab stuff off Tamsin. So in desperation I gave her a little bowl of uncooked rice and she happily took her time gently sprinkling it over the carpet. Ah well, it kept her quiet for a bit. Then the "whatever one sister has the other one wants" hormone kicked in and Tamsin just wanted to play with the rice, so she decorated her clay horse with it, sprinkled it into the abandoned gloop, and generally entertained herself with it a good deal more than Isabelle had, who by that time had got down and wandered off to other pursuits. I did however squeeze one more educational moment out of the clay by getting Tamsin to press her finger into it next to mine and then giving her the magnifying glass with which to study our fingerprints.
After a bit of miscellaneous playing (Isabelle is loving her stacking cups at the moment) we attempted to visit the Library, only to find it closed due to the strike, so went on to a charity shop instead but found nothing of interest there. We came home and there was one lovely moment while I was in the kitchen making the dinner when I poked my head round the door into the living room to see both Tamsin and Isabelle engrossed in their own respective Usborne books (Farmyard Tales for Tamsin, a touchy-feely one for Isabelle). Tamsin made repeated raids into my Usborne boxes and made a very good stab at reading much of the stuff herself, although she did appreciate it when I looked through the Children's Encyclopedia with her. Looking at the front cover she pointed to the picture of Tutankhamun's mask and said "I want to look at that", so I turned to the Ancient Egypt page and while telling her that it was all very old and happened a long time ago, she said "I want to learn all about everything old!". She wasn't into much of a long attention span at that point of the day, though, and we flipped on through Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Incas, Vikings, Edward VIII, the Victorians, WW2 and the atomic bomb, and then into the "How People Live" section with a brief discussion of different cultures and how they eat different foods, dress differently, decorate themselves in various ways and so on. It's all very much skimming the surface but at least it shows her that all these things are there to be looked at, wondered at and talked about when and if she is ready to.
Isabelle crawled up onto my knee to be fed at about 6.15pm and promptly fell asleep while I was reading "Treasure Island" (Usborne Young Readers edition) to Tamsin, so she was popped straight to bed and then Bill came home just in time to do bedtime stories with Tamsin, so he finished Treasure Island and "Tom Thumb" that he got half-way through with her last night, so I had a nice easy bedtime stage tonight.
Bill has come home with a lovely Dell laptop which is going to be all for me (cheap; perk of the job), and he's currently searching Ebay for a WiFi card so I'll be able to blog in bed soon, yippee!
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
My beautiful girl
On Saturday, we stopped on the way down to Cornwall to go to the beach, and I just love this pic of a windblown Tamsin. There are some other nice ones too, but it's after midnight and I haven't got time to do all the rest!
Monday, March 27, 2006
So much to blog, so little time...
Tamsin's at playschool, Isabelle has just gone down for a nap, but after two appalling nights with her as she is not very well, I simply must have a quick nap myself before collecting Tamsin, otherwise I will *never* make it till the end of the day, or more importantly, the children may not survive till the end of the day!! A touch of mastitis doesn't help, either.
So we've been down to Cornwall this weekend and got the car! A lovely Toyota Prius, which averaged 56mpg on the way home, so that's a result! It will be interesting to see how it goes round the doors. Bill and I are going to have a battle royal as to who gets the majority use of it, but I am regarding it as *mine*!!! He is distraught at the thought of the mess and dirt that will result from carrying the children in it. Anyway, he's driving it this first week, just for one week, you understand, to check how much money he saves driving to Oxford and back everyday, and then I will have it. Yes, I will.
On the way back, we dropped in on the tworedboots family which was great although I must apologise in public for being 3 hours late, or was it 4? That has to be a record. Partly due to the change to BST, which despite being a relatively intelligent person, befuddles me completely and I struggle to work out what time my body thinks it is, or more importantly, what time the children's bodies think it is. And partly because the car seller changed his mind at the last minute at coming up to St Austell to meet us to hand over the car, and we had to drive down to the back of beyond to collect it. The most beautiful section of the back of beyond, mind you, with the most stunning views from high up on a cliff over a river inlet and their own private beach, but envy isn't becoming so I will stop there.
So I now have half-an-hour before going to collect Tamsin, so it's snooze-time.
So we've been down to Cornwall this weekend and got the car! A lovely Toyota Prius, which averaged 56mpg on the way home, so that's a result! It will be interesting to see how it goes round the doors. Bill and I are going to have a battle royal as to who gets the majority use of it, but I am regarding it as *mine*!!! He is distraught at the thought of the mess and dirt that will result from carrying the children in it. Anyway, he's driving it this first week, just for one week, you understand, to check how much money he saves driving to Oxford and back everyday, and then I will have it. Yes, I will.
On the way back, we dropped in on the tworedboots family which was great although I must apologise in public for being 3 hours late, or was it 4? That has to be a record. Partly due to the change to BST, which despite being a relatively intelligent person, befuddles me completely and I struggle to work out what time my body thinks it is, or more importantly, what time the children's bodies think it is. And partly because the car seller changed his mind at the last minute at coming up to St Austell to meet us to hand over the car, and we had to drive down to the back of beyond to collect it. The most beautiful section of the back of beyond, mind you, with the most stunning views from high up on a cliff over a river inlet and their own private beach, but envy isn't becoming so I will stop there.
So I now have half-an-hour before going to collect Tamsin, so it's snooze-time.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Back to HE
Aha, at last it feels like we've done something worth blogging today.
This morning, Tamsin's breakfast viewing request (normally CBeebies) was the Dorling Kindersley video The Human Machine - the second time she's watched it. So much of it must be over her head, but it was interesting that she wanted it and as a result we briefly discussed brains, bones, blood cells and much else of a biological nature.
Unusually she didn't want to go to Playschool, so we stayed in and read books, walked the dog and then I took both girls off to work with me from 11-1pm. I took some Learning Land CD-Roms and Tamsin worked on a couple of them.
This afternoon she has looked at a lot of Usborne 1000 First Words, reading the words round the edge and then spotting the items in the main picture; we have (ta-da!) done our two first Miquon maths sheets although I was rather annoyed when I left her to continue filling in the blanks in a number square while I went to see to the dinner and came back to find she had scribbled over it; she's played with her farm and both girls have spent a fair amount of time outside, Tamsin pretending to be a dog and running on all fours to fetch the ball, and Isabelle toddling about generally and having a few goes on the slide. Tamsin was struggling a bit with writing some of the numbers so I have made her some number cards to have for reference, with a big dot where the writing of the number should start. Just before serving the dinner I put the Cuisenaire rods on the table and suggested that Tamsin should think which rod should go with which number card, and came back to find them totally randomly scattered! I pointed out that she could count the number of squares on the rods, and maybe match them to the numbers like that ....!! She did :-) She has also, as usual, done lots of word-spotting and sounding out all over the place.
This morning, Tamsin's breakfast viewing request (normally CBeebies) was the Dorling Kindersley video The Human Machine - the second time she's watched it. So much of it must be over her head, but it was interesting that she wanted it and as a result we briefly discussed brains, bones, blood cells and much else of a biological nature.
Unusually she didn't want to go to Playschool, so we stayed in and read books, walked the dog and then I took both girls off to work with me from 11-1pm. I took some Learning Land CD-Roms and Tamsin worked on a couple of them.
This afternoon she has looked at a lot of Usborne 1000 First Words, reading the words round the edge and then spotting the items in the main picture; we have (ta-da!) done our two first Miquon maths sheets although I was rather annoyed when I left her to continue filling in the blanks in a number square while I went to see to the dinner and came back to find she had scribbled over it; she's played with her farm and both girls have spent a fair amount of time outside, Tamsin pretending to be a dog and running on all fours to fetch the ball, and Isabelle toddling about generally and having a few goes on the slide. Tamsin was struggling a bit with writing some of the numbers so I have made her some number cards to have for reference, with a big dot where the writing of the number should start. Just before serving the dinner I put the Cuisenaire rods on the table and suggested that Tamsin should think which rod should go with which number card, and came back to find them totally randomly scattered! I pointed out that she could count the number of squares on the rods, and maybe match them to the numbers like that ....!! She did :-) She has also, as usual, done lots of word-spotting and sounding out all over the place.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
When I sit at my computer and think about blogging, there is so much going on and it's all in such a complicated jumble in my mind that I can't think where to start, hence the blank week. Not that any of it is particularly major, but tiredness and too-much-to-do just get on top of me.
On the HE front, Tamsin's reading is still coming along amazingly. We've done another 'Sound of the Week' poster today with the ch/tch sound and she just loves going through those. She's happily reading words which I think are quite complicated and has a good stab at any new ones. I'm very impressed. I have to confess to a fair amount of relief that she's 'keeping up' with one schooled friend, but also pleased that it has been very much at her own pace and only done as and when she's wanted to.
However, a conversation with her Playschool leader yesterday has given me food for thought. She pointed out that it is so difficult to get Tamsin to say anything to the adults at playschool that it's very hard for them to assess her attainment. Now, in one sense, that doesn't matter at all because I know her level of attainment and I know it's perfectly good, if not better than normal, at this stage. But it did highlight this extreme shyness she has with adults in particular, that extends even to those whom she likes and has known for a year or two, or even in one case, all her life. She will not speak to them, even in a setting where she is happy and enjoys going. Even my friend Kate who has looked after Tamsin since 9 months old finds it hard to get her to ask her directly for something. And on Googling last night about it, I find that these symptoms, which approach but do not quite meet the criteria for selective mutism, are signs of anxiety and possibly low self-esteem, and I admit I'm worried about it. If there is a genetic component to such things, then she's a good candidate for having inherited my tendency to anxiety, and of course maternal guilt is only too quick to rise up and fear that I have been over-protective and not built up her self-esteem enough. None of it is comfortable thinking, anyway.
Nevertheless, the muddle in my head is more than matched by the muddle in my house, so I must go and do something.
On the HE front, Tamsin's reading is still coming along amazingly. We've done another 'Sound of the Week' poster today with the ch/tch sound and she just loves going through those. She's happily reading words which I think are quite complicated and has a good stab at any new ones. I'm very impressed. I have to confess to a fair amount of relief that she's 'keeping up' with one schooled friend, but also pleased that it has been very much at her own pace and only done as and when she's wanted to.
However, a conversation with her Playschool leader yesterday has given me food for thought. She pointed out that it is so difficult to get Tamsin to say anything to the adults at playschool that it's very hard for them to assess her attainment. Now, in one sense, that doesn't matter at all because I know her level of attainment and I know it's perfectly good, if not better than normal, at this stage. But it did highlight this extreme shyness she has with adults in particular, that extends even to those whom she likes and has known for a year or two, or even in one case, all her life. She will not speak to them, even in a setting where she is happy and enjoys going. Even my friend Kate who has looked after Tamsin since 9 months old finds it hard to get her to ask her directly for something. And on Googling last night about it, I find that these symptoms, which approach but do not quite meet the criteria for selective mutism, are signs of anxiety and possibly low self-esteem, and I admit I'm worried about it. If there is a genetic component to such things, then she's a good candidate for having inherited my tendency to anxiety, and of course maternal guilt is only too quick to rise up and fear that I have been over-protective and not built up her self-esteem enough. None of it is comfortable thinking, anyway.
Nevertheless, the muddle in my head is more than matched by the muddle in my house, so I must go and do something.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Woke in a hazy fashion after a rather disturbed night from Isabelle, and while I tried to work out what day it was, I realised I had a nagging feeling that our car insurance ran out yesterday. I was right. So first job of the day was online to a 'screenscraper' service to get about 30 quotes all at once. Managed to save ourselves a creditable £50 p.a. on that premium, which on top of last week's £100 saved on the other car insurance premium is well worth a little time at the computer! I love the internet!
Today has been a day of much repetition. From the time she joined me in the bathroom to watch me shower, right through to bedtime, Isabelle has been singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over again all day. Very sweet! Mostly just a recognisable tune, which in itself I think is amazing, plus a few distinguishable syllables. And Tamsin has done pretty much a whole bookful of dot-to-dot puzzles, going back to it again and again until this evening when she got quite a tricky one that went up to 48 and zig-zagged about, she found it difficult, threw the book on the floor and declared she didn't like dot-to-dot (rolls eyes!).
We've also done lots of 'art' ("I am an artist" Tamsin proclaimed yesterday) although our watercolour over wax crayon effort didn't turn out like it did on the telly! But she's painted flowers, sky, sunsets, Jack and the Beanstalk (yesterday), and various abstract works, while Isabelle has mostly painted herself. Yes, I know this needs a photo, but I didn't think to take one, sadly!
Also I bought Tamsin a little packet of little craft pom-pom balls from the Post Office this morning, so while sitting together making 'dandelions' with said pom-poms and pipe-cleaners, I sneaked in a little maths by playing about with 9 little balls and doing the various number-bonds up to 9, with addition and subtraction. Then Isabelle woke up from her nap in the car, and because I was just trying to finish a quick e-mail, I waited a couple of minutes, and surprisingly the calling out for me turned into wailing, so I *ran* out to get her and fell dramatically on the wet concrete path, so I now have spectacular bruising developing on my right hip, leg and arm. At the same point, my Tesco delivery turned up so all in all it was rather a manic 10 minutes or so, but it was nice to catch up with the delivery-person who used to be our milk-delivery lady back when I was pregnant with Benjamin and then all the trauma that followed. She's a very hearty country-woman but lovely with it and we had a nice chat about kids and dogs and chickens and life in general! I fielded the usual question to Tamsin, "Oh, aren't you in school today?" just by saying she'd be going in September, so a bit of a cop-out there but there are some people it's worth trying to debate with and others it isn't, I reckon.
I am having pangs about the absent chickens every time I open the back door or gate, but I guess I will get used to them being gone soon, and I certainly am looking forward to not stepping in chicken-shit everywhere I go.
Tonight I have done a little sorting-out of papers and finances (much more still to be done on both fronts) but at least it feels like a little progress has been made. And I can see some of the wooden bits of my desk, not just a sea of papers! Very rare.
Today has been a day of much repetition. From the time she joined me in the bathroom to watch me shower, right through to bedtime, Isabelle has been singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over again all day. Very sweet! Mostly just a recognisable tune, which in itself I think is amazing, plus a few distinguishable syllables. And Tamsin has done pretty much a whole bookful of dot-to-dot puzzles, going back to it again and again until this evening when she got quite a tricky one that went up to 48 and zig-zagged about, she found it difficult, threw the book on the floor and declared she didn't like dot-to-dot (rolls eyes!).
We've also done lots of 'art' ("I am an artist" Tamsin proclaimed yesterday) although our watercolour over wax crayon effort didn't turn out like it did on the telly! But she's painted flowers, sky, sunsets, Jack and the Beanstalk (yesterday), and various abstract works, while Isabelle has mostly painted herself. Yes, I know this needs a photo, but I didn't think to take one, sadly!
Also I bought Tamsin a little packet of little craft pom-pom balls from the Post Office this morning, so while sitting together making 'dandelions' with said pom-poms and pipe-cleaners, I sneaked in a little maths by playing about with 9 little balls and doing the various number-bonds up to 9, with addition and subtraction. Then Isabelle woke up from her nap in the car, and because I was just trying to finish a quick e-mail, I waited a couple of minutes, and surprisingly the calling out for me turned into wailing, so I *ran* out to get her and fell dramatically on the wet concrete path, so I now have spectacular bruising developing on my right hip, leg and arm. At the same point, my Tesco delivery turned up so all in all it was rather a manic 10 minutes or so, but it was nice to catch up with the delivery-person who used to be our milk-delivery lady back when I was pregnant with Benjamin and then all the trauma that followed. She's a very hearty country-woman but lovely with it and we had a nice chat about kids and dogs and chickens and life in general! I fielded the usual question to Tamsin, "Oh, aren't you in school today?" just by saying she'd be going in September, so a bit of a cop-out there but there are some people it's worth trying to debate with and others it isn't, I reckon.
I am having pangs about the absent chickens every time I open the back door or gate, but I guess I will get used to them being gone soon, and I certainly am looking forward to not stepping in chicken-shit everywhere I go.
Tonight I have done a little sorting-out of papers and finances (much more still to be done on both fronts) but at least it feels like a little progress has been made. And I can see some of the wooden bits of my desk, not just a sea of papers! Very rare.
Monday, March 13, 2006
The chickens have flown ....
Well, one did, as we tried to catch her to be taken away by my hairdresser's mother at 9am this morning. But she came back later, fortunately, though it is sad that they have now all gone. Mostly because they would not stay in their corner of the garden and there is chicken-poo everywhere, and with Spring coming the girls will want to be running about out there. Slight nerves about bird-flu too, though. Will hope to get some more chickens when we can afford to put up 9' high fences to keep them in!!
I'm feeling very frugal at the moment as I have just done an online Tesco order and found a code to get £10 off, and have ordered some clubcard Deals tokens to pay for various meals and sight-seeing tickets for our trip to London in June. I've sold my Amby baby hammock on Ebay this weekend, plus a bundle of baby clothes, so that'll be over £100 to pay off the credit card.
The girls have been happy and lively this weekend, which is more than can be said for their parents as Isabelle has had somewhat disturbed nights and I have ended up feeding her just once during each of the past two nights, to stop her waking and crying every 5 minutes for what felt like an hour or more. I'm determined not to feed here more than once per night, though, and hope this stage passes and she starts to sleep right through.
Plenty of HE has been going on of the reading, painting and Hama beading variety but I can't remember enough detail to blog it.
Catch y'all later.
I'm feeling very frugal at the moment as I have just done an online Tesco order and found a code to get £10 off, and have ordered some clubcard Deals tokens to pay for various meals and sight-seeing tickets for our trip to London in June. I've sold my Amby baby hammock on Ebay this weekend, plus a bundle of baby clothes, so that'll be over £100 to pay off the credit card.
The girls have been happy and lively this weekend, which is more than can be said for their parents as Isabelle has had somewhat disturbed nights and I have ended up feeding her just once during each of the past two nights, to stop her waking and crying every 5 minutes for what felt like an hour or more. I'm determined not to feed here more than once per night, though, and hope this stage passes and she starts to sleep right through.
Plenty of HE has been going on of the reading, painting and Hama beading variety but I can't remember enough detail to blog it.
Catch y'all later.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Mmmmm, Snickerdoodles
Katy, you've got a lot to answer for. Made a batch yesterday and, erm, they're all gone.
Feeling rather sick about finances atm as I have had to find a childminder for Isabelle, and assumed I could claim on Tax Credits for 70% of the cost and now find I can't. Shit.
I did well at the charity shop today, with a few educational books (mostly 50-75p each) plus a cardigan for myself, then we've been to the library for more books and got a package from Bookstart with yet more books. So it's a good job I organised the HE bookshelf yesterday and put everything into subject order, so I know where to put them!
Feeling rather sick about finances atm as I have had to find a childminder for Isabelle, and assumed I could claim on Tax Credits for 70% of the cost and now find I can't. Shit.
I did well at the charity shop today, with a few educational books (mostly 50-75p each) plus a cardigan for myself, then we've been to the library for more books and got a package from Bookstart with yet more books. So it's a good job I organised the HE bookshelf yesterday and put everything into subject order, so I know where to put them!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Not much to report
Bill was off sick yesterday with some vague bug and I've got it today. Nausea, fatigue, light-headedness, aching ... and all this on a day when I was driving to near Abingdon to meet my Mum. She's offered to have the dog for a week or so, and we often meet at a mid-way point to do the changeover. Anyway it all went a bit pear-shaped and I ended up dropping in on Bill at work in Oxford, he drove us all to meet Mum and then brought us all home again whereupon I went to bed. Tamsin did impress her Granny with her reading though.
Isabelle is night-weaned (again)! Like last time, she's not particularly sleeping much better yet although she does go for a longer stretch before waking for the first time. She's still waking and complaining a bit a few times during the night, though usually settles after a while. I think my next step needs to be to give her a bedtime feed downstairs, or otherwise not so close to going to sleep, so that she doesn't connect the two at all.
Apart from that, she is just heart-meltingly cute at the moment, especially when she puckers up for a kiss ...aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!
Isabelle is night-weaned (again)! Like last time, she's not particularly sleeping much better yet although she does go for a longer stretch before waking for the first time. She's still waking and complaining a bit a few times during the night, though usually settles after a while. I think my next step needs to be to give her a bedtime feed downstairs, or otherwise not so close to going to sleep, so that she doesn't connect the two at all.
Apart from that, she is just heart-meltingly cute at the moment, especially when she puckers up for a kiss ...aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Learning all the time
HE seems to be really flying at the moment, without any planning or organisation by me! Tamsin is very keen on reading, and every time we pick up a book she is reading as much of it as possible, and picking out words or phrases that we read to her and checking out what they look like. We're doing almost no maths, but I'm happy that that will come in time. At the moment, she just wants to read and is concentrating nearly all her efforts on that. She even read the first 3 paragraphs of her bedtime story this evening with minimal help.
She's also asking for lots of books to be read to her. So this weekend we've read the first couple of pages of "What's Under the Sea?", "Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature" all about Spring and started on Summer, "New Toes for Tia", "Letterland Maps Activity Book", more Flip Flap Body Book about how babies are made, plus some stories. Some of you will spot there is much of Sonlight Pre-K in here; I haven't been systematic about doing Sonlight consistently at all, but the box of books is in the living room and we dip into it intermittently. I would like to be more consistent with it, but knowing me I probably won't. I have left the Guide booklet out, though, to try and prompt me to do more this week. Even if I don't, it's all going very well autonomously, so perhaps I shouldn't interfere with the process!
Yesterday morning we visited the school she will go to just 1-2 days per week in September. She enjoyed playing with the doll's house, and then read about 3 of the Oxford Reading Tree books which were out on display. We also browsed through their maths resources (Heinemann) and she had a play on a computer game (educational of course!) that was set up. She met a girl who will be in Yr 1 next year, so knows one classmate's face and name at least. I was struck by how the other parents I talked to didn't just like this school, they totally raved about it and adored it. I definitely don't want to send Tamsin full-time - I can just see so many reasons not to - but I am glad she will get the chance to be there a little of the time.
Today we've spent quite a bit of time outside. I washed the car again as I am fed up of getting dirty trouser legs all the time, and then did a bit more vegetable patch digging. It's horribly hard work - I do wish I could afford to hire a rotovator but it's just way too expensive - but I suspect I will be extremely proud of myself when it's done! Isabelle just loves tootling about outside and frequently wanders round in any state of undress she happens to be in when I pop out to get the washing in or feed the chickens. So she had a lovely time all wrapped up in her thick winter suit-thingy just wandering round and watching what we were all doing. Tamsin helped me with the digging using a trowel, but quickly moved on to making a hole for the ants to live in!
I've made a decision which I think might save me a great deal of time and hopefully some money too. Now that we have taken out this loan to buy the car, things are going to be even tighter than before and we have no slack in the system for buying luxuries like upgrading computer bits (Bill, please note!!!), fancy shoes or books. Uh, hang on a minute, books are essentials, aren't they? Like air and water? Anyway, I have decided to give up reading catalogues!! No more Book People, Boden or Lakeland. And definitely no Rainbow Resources! And no browsing Argos or Amazon websites either. If I don't see it, I won't miss it, and I won't long for it. So there. Does that count as my Lenten self-deprivation? Even though it will have to last for 5 years?
She's also asking for lots of books to be read to her. So this weekend we've read the first couple of pages of "What's Under the Sea?", "Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature" all about Spring and started on Summer, "New Toes for Tia", "Letterland Maps Activity Book", more Flip Flap Body Book about how babies are made, plus some stories. Some of you will spot there is much of Sonlight Pre-K in here; I haven't been systematic about doing Sonlight consistently at all, but the box of books is in the living room and we dip into it intermittently. I would like to be more consistent with it, but knowing me I probably won't. I have left the Guide booklet out, though, to try and prompt me to do more this week. Even if I don't, it's all going very well autonomously, so perhaps I shouldn't interfere with the process!
Yesterday morning we visited the school she will go to just 1-2 days per week in September. She enjoyed playing with the doll's house, and then read about 3 of the Oxford Reading Tree books which were out on display. We also browsed through their maths resources (Heinemann) and she had a play on a computer game (educational of course!) that was set up. She met a girl who will be in Yr 1 next year, so knows one classmate's face and name at least. I was struck by how the other parents I talked to didn't just like this school, they totally raved about it and adored it. I definitely don't want to send Tamsin full-time - I can just see so many reasons not to - but I am glad she will get the chance to be there a little of the time.
Today we've spent quite a bit of time outside. I washed the car again as I am fed up of getting dirty trouser legs all the time, and then did a bit more vegetable patch digging. It's horribly hard work - I do wish I could afford to hire a rotovator but it's just way too expensive - but I suspect I will be extremely proud of myself when it's done! Isabelle just loves tootling about outside and frequently wanders round in any state of undress she happens to be in when I pop out to get the washing in or feed the chickens. So she had a lovely time all wrapped up in her thick winter suit-thingy just wandering round and watching what we were all doing. Tamsin helped me with the digging using a trowel, but quickly moved on to making a hole for the ants to live in!
I've made a decision which I think might save me a great deal of time and hopefully some money too. Now that we have taken out this loan to buy the car, things are going to be even tighter than before and we have no slack in the system for buying luxuries like upgrading computer bits (Bill, please note!!!), fancy shoes or books. Uh, hang on a minute, books are essentials, aren't they? Like air and water? Anyway, I have decided to give up reading catalogues!! No more Book People, Boden or Lakeland. And definitely no Rainbow Resources! And no browsing Argos or Amazon websites either. If I don't see it, I won't miss it, and I won't long for it. So there. Does that count as my Lenten self-deprivation? Even though it will have to last for 5 years?
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Oh what a beautiful morning!
I'm full of the joys of Spring, here, which is strange considering the broken night's sleep we've all had. Isabelle was intermittently very unhappy at not being fed all night, and Bill did sterling work soothing and comforting her. When it was light-ish at 6.30am I fed her, but she never went back to sleep after that, and neither did Tamsin and I.
However, we've had a really lovely morning so far. Normally so early on a Saturday morning I'd veg in front of the computer while the kids vegged in front of the TV, but today we didn't get onto either till now (9.45am). I've tidied and scrubbed the kitchen so now it is vaguely respectable again. We've eaten a healthy breakfast of porridge with mashed banana, during which we read more of the Flip Flap Body Book, all about what happens to your food. I've had a shower and got dressed, and then we've come downstairs again with one of Tamsin's word puzzles which she's spent ages on. They're little mini-jigsaws of animals with a letter on each piece to spell the animal's name. She told me which one she wanted to do next and I got her to tell me which letters she needed to spell the words. When they were all made, she told a fantastic story about all of them, broke off in the middle into a complicated version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and then continued the story. I only wish I'd been able to write it down or otherwise record it, but I was feeding Isabelle at the time. It's just been so not an activity or lesson that could have been pre-planned, but it was a beautiful demonstration of literacy and imagination all in together.
Soon we're going out for an Open Morning at the school that Tamsin will be attending 1-2 days per week in September. They're threatened either with closure or 'federating' with another school a few miles away, so they're drumming up public support in advance of the public meetings to be held over the next couple of weeks. After that we'll go to Tesco, and then to the library! And then I'll go to bed while Bill takes over!
However, we've had a really lovely morning so far. Normally so early on a Saturday morning I'd veg in front of the computer while the kids vegged in front of the TV, but today we didn't get onto either till now (9.45am). I've tidied and scrubbed the kitchen so now it is vaguely respectable again. We've eaten a healthy breakfast of porridge with mashed banana, during which we read more of the Flip Flap Body Book, all about what happens to your food. I've had a shower and got dressed, and then we've come downstairs again with one of Tamsin's word puzzles which she's spent ages on. They're little mini-jigsaws of animals with a letter on each piece to spell the animal's name. She told me which one she wanted to do next and I got her to tell me which letters she needed to spell the words. When they were all made, she told a fantastic story about all of them, broke off in the middle into a complicated version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and then continued the story. I only wish I'd been able to write it down or otherwise record it, but I was feeding Isabelle at the time. It's just been so not an activity or lesson that could have been pre-planned, but it was a beautiful demonstration of literacy and imagination all in together.
Soon we're going out for an Open Morning at the school that Tamsin will be attending 1-2 days per week in September. They're threatened either with closure or 'federating' with another school a few miles away, so they're drumming up public support in advance of the public meetings to be held over the next couple of weeks. After that we'll go to Tesco, and then to the library! And then I'll go to bed while Bill takes over!
Friday, March 03, 2006
Today's chocolate biscuit count = 10
Hmmm, not so good then. Perhaps due to stress...... 'cos we've just bought a car off Ebay. So now we can be really eco-friendly (well, maybe just a bit) with our hybrid electric/petrol car. Can't wait to get it, but hyperventilating a bit about taking out the loan......
Apart from that, we've done lots of reading this afternoon. (This morning was work/playschool). My Usborne order which I placed on Wednesday morning arrived this morning! Very impressed, I was. So we've read the Flip Flap Body Book, Night-Time (all about animals that are out at night), On The Farm, Going to School (!) and she helped me read the Farmyard Tales 'Camping Out'. At bedtime we've read the Letterland ABC from front to back and spent ages, together with Bill, spotting all the objects in the pictures that start with the appropriate letter.
Tonight we're going to try and resist Isabelle's calls for night-time feeding, and Bill's going to do his excellent baby-comforting routine. Fingers crossed!
Apart from that, we've done lots of reading this afternoon. (This morning was work/playschool). My Usborne order which I placed on Wednesday morning arrived this morning! Very impressed, I was. So we've read the Flip Flap Body Book, Night-Time (all about animals that are out at night), On The Farm, Going to School (!) and she helped me read the Farmyard Tales 'Camping Out'. At bedtime we've read the Letterland ABC from front to back and spent ages, together with Bill, spotting all the objects in the pictures that start with the appropriate letter.
Tonight we're going to try and resist Isabelle's calls for night-time feeding, and Bill's going to do his excellent baby-comforting routine. Fingers crossed!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Split personality
I've been having this inner conversation with myself the past couple of days. "Two days! That's hopeless. I should have done better than that." Or, on the other hand: "Two days! That was really tough going, and I did really well! Managing not to eat any biscuits, cakes or other sweet stuff for two whole days. Wahay!!"
Yeah, day 3 I caved, but at least I still only had 2 choc biccies that day, instead of my normal 10. I reckon if I hold myself to only 1 or 2 per day, that's not too bad! I've been snacking on dried fruit and nuts, bananas and cereal instead.
I've been feeling a bit of split personality about Tamsin today, too. I've been seriously unimpressed with her treatment of her best friend from playschool, Shelley, who came over this afternoon to play. Tamsin was quite horrible 2 or 3 times, and made Shelley cry, and I had to talk very seriously to her about her behaviour. On the other hand, her reading this evening has seriously impressed both Bill and I again. She's been working out words like 'loving', 'difficult' 'clean', 'remember' 'Prime Minister' 'growing' without any help and words like 'important', 'healthy' and 'should' with only slight help.
In 'other news', the house is out of control again, I've fallen off the FlyLady wagon, I can't decide what to do with the chickens and money is disappearing scarily fast. Where's that bottle of Baileys?
Yeah, day 3 I caved, but at least I still only had 2 choc biccies that day, instead of my normal 10. I reckon if I hold myself to only 1 or 2 per day, that's not too bad! I've been snacking on dried fruit and nuts, bananas and cereal instead.
I've been feeling a bit of split personality about Tamsin today, too. I've been seriously unimpressed with her treatment of her best friend from playschool, Shelley, who came over this afternoon to play. Tamsin was quite horrible 2 or 3 times, and made Shelley cry, and I had to talk very seriously to her about her behaviour. On the other hand, her reading this evening has seriously impressed both Bill and I again. She's been working out words like 'loving', 'difficult' 'clean', 'remember' 'Prime Minister' 'growing' without any help and words like 'important', 'healthy' and 'should' with only slight help.
In 'other news', the house is out of control again, I've fallen off the FlyLady wagon, I can't decide what to do with the chickens and money is disappearing scarily fast. Where's that bottle of Baileys?
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Lent comes early
If I blog this, it might help me to stick to it, as I'll have all you lot to answer to as well.
I was quite horrified at myself the other day scarfing an entire pack of caramel chocolate digestives, although my choccy biccy habit has been quite substantial for a long time. The next day I picked up a copy of "You are what you eat" by Gillian McKeith in a charity shop, and browsed through it in the evening. Now, in true FlyLady babystep mode, I cannot promise to give up chocolate biscuits, cake and the like forever, but I obviously have a serious sugar habit that needs to be taken in hand as much as possible, so I am taking it 'one day at a time'. I have stocked up on bananas, apples, and dried fruit and nuts and am shunning the 'baddies'. Let's just see how it goes. The temptation is very powerful.
Not a great deal happening educationally - well, it is the weekend. I did spot Tamsin going through the phonics 'folder' thing (that we brought to Melrose) with Daddy yesterday for quite a long time. She's played with Brio train track, and we started this morning with a go at the Egyptian Hieroglyphs game. She had a lesson in how to deal with social embarrassment when I popped into Budgens on the way home from church, bought £28 worth of stuff, opened my purse to pay and found my debit card not there. Hmmm. There isn't enough money in my personal account to cover that amount and I don't know the PIN numbers of the other cards. I can't write a cheque because I still need the appropriate card. I rummaged deeper in my bag and found another cheque book for which I did have the appropriate card. There isn't enough money in that account either but at least with a cheque I have a couple of days to transfer something into it! Actually, I didn't feel particularly embarrassed because these things happen to everyone now and then, but it was an interesting moment or two!
I was quite horrified at myself the other day scarfing an entire pack of caramel chocolate digestives, although my choccy biccy habit has been quite substantial for a long time. The next day I picked up a copy of "You are what you eat" by Gillian McKeith in a charity shop, and browsed through it in the evening. Now, in true FlyLady babystep mode, I cannot promise to give up chocolate biscuits, cake and the like forever, but I obviously have a serious sugar habit that needs to be taken in hand as much as possible, so I am taking it 'one day at a time'. I have stocked up on bananas, apples, and dried fruit and nuts and am shunning the 'baddies'. Let's just see how it goes. The temptation is very powerful.
Not a great deal happening educationally - well, it is the weekend. I did spot Tamsin going through the phonics 'folder' thing (that we brought to Melrose) with Daddy yesterday for quite a long time. She's played with Brio train track, and we started this morning with a go at the Egyptian Hieroglyphs game. She had a lesson in how to deal with social embarrassment when I popped into Budgens on the way home from church, bought £28 worth of stuff, opened my purse to pay and found my debit card not there. Hmmm. There isn't enough money in my personal account to cover that amount and I don't know the PIN numbers of the other cards. I can't write a cheque because I still need the appropriate card. I rummaged deeper in my bag and found another cheque book for which I did have the appropriate card. There isn't enough money in that account either but at least with a cheque I have a couple of days to transfer something into it! Actually, I didn't feel particularly embarrassed because these things happen to everyone now and then, but it was an interesting moment or two!
Friday, February 24, 2006
I'm trying to blog but 'The most embarrassing things about the 1980s' programme (or whatever it's called) is seriously addling my brain and I can't think straight - ah, memories..... Let's not go there ... the emotional torments of my late teens and twenties are not worth remembering too much.
Anyway, today I've had my grown-up head on in order to interview candidates for a vacancy at Playschool, and as Chair it was my job this afternoon to phone the successful (nice call) and unsuccessful (hmmmm) candidates. Anyway, it's all done now and we have a lovely new shiny Assistant starting on Monday morning.
This afternoon I dodged the girls while I made the necessary phone calls, but made up for it later by doing a new 'Sound of the Week' poster (on request from Tamsin) covering the ay/ai/ei sound, she's done a beautiful picture of someone walking in the dark in the rain, she's played with Isabelle, built wooden brick houses for Mr Small, Mr Happy and Mr Tall and watched the DK "Human Machine" video. To top it all, among her bedtime stories was "St George and the Dragon" to fit nicely into our low-key United Kingdom project which is ticking along in the background, along with the butterfly one. In the meantime, I seem to have eaten, erm, an entire pack of Caramel chocolate biscuits ..... oops!
ETA - forgot about the face painting! Tamsin wanted to paint me, so all afternoon I've had orange cheeks, a black nose, a green and yellow forehead, one blue ear and one orange ear. I returned the favour and she was a butterfly with orange wings on her cheeks and black feelers on her forehead.
And yes, I am feeling better, thank you!
Anyway, today I've had my grown-up head on in order to interview candidates for a vacancy at Playschool, and as Chair it was my job this afternoon to phone the successful (nice call) and unsuccessful (hmmmm) candidates. Anyway, it's all done now and we have a lovely new shiny Assistant starting on Monday morning.
This afternoon I dodged the girls while I made the necessary phone calls, but made up for it later by doing a new 'Sound of the Week' poster (on request from Tamsin) covering the ay/ai/ei sound, she's done a beautiful picture of someone walking in the dark in the rain, she's played with Isabelle, built wooden brick houses for Mr Small, Mr Happy and Mr Tall and watched the DK "Human Machine" video. To top it all, among her bedtime stories was "St George and the Dragon" to fit nicely into our low-key United Kingdom project which is ticking along in the background, along with the butterfly one. In the meantime, I seem to have eaten, erm, an entire pack of Caramel chocolate biscuits ..... oops!
ETA - forgot about the face painting! Tamsin wanted to paint me, so all afternoon I've had orange cheeks, a black nose, a green and yellow forehead, one blue ear and one orange ear. I returned the favour and she was a butterfly with orange wings on her cheeks and black feelers on her forehead.
And yes, I am feeling better, thank you!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
I'm stuffed.
Stuffed up with a cold, that is. Today has felt like wading chest-high through treacle. And even though I managed about an hour's sleep this afternoon while Isabelle napped and Tamsin watched Mary Poppins, I feel like I could go straight to bed now, but I won't 'cos that's what I did last night. Humph. I hate losing my evenings.
Anyway, despite that we've done quite a bit of reading practice. It is pretty much all child-led, as Tamsin is just totally enjoying decoding words now. Several times each day she is picking up books and either trying to read them herself, or asking me to read her a story but then constantly pointing to words she can read, repeating phrases after me while studying them carefully, or choosing phrases she wants to read while I read the rest. It is all going in at exactly her own speed and she is making steady but sure progress. I explain phonics rules and exceptions to them as and when we come across them, for example this morning I was showing her how 'oo' could be pronounced as in 'kangaroo' or as in 'book'. I am really enjoying going through this process with her, and seeing how it all develops. How sad it would be to have delegated this to a school!
We've also covered socialising, by looking after a friend's 2-year old this morning, who Tamsin gets on very well with, and art/craft by doing some glass painting this afternoon.
I keep meaning to record, mostly just for my own benefit, Isabelle's speech at the moment. It is very limited, but so far she can clearly say 'Mama' (apparently aimed at anybody she loves!), see-saw, ta, 'peeeee' for Poppy (the dog), and shush. I also think she was saying 'down' this evening when she wanted to get out of her high-chair, and for the past week or so she's sounded for all the world like she's counting 'five, six, seven, eight...' although I can hardly believe it can be so. Bill has noticed it too.
It's blooming hard work, this motherhood thing, but I love it!
Anyway, despite that we've done quite a bit of reading practice. It is pretty much all child-led, as Tamsin is just totally enjoying decoding words now. Several times each day she is picking up books and either trying to read them herself, or asking me to read her a story but then constantly pointing to words she can read, repeating phrases after me while studying them carefully, or choosing phrases she wants to read while I read the rest. It is all going in at exactly her own speed and she is making steady but sure progress. I explain phonics rules and exceptions to them as and when we come across them, for example this morning I was showing her how 'oo' could be pronounced as in 'kangaroo' or as in 'book'. I am really enjoying going through this process with her, and seeing how it all develops. How sad it would be to have delegated this to a school!
We've also covered socialising, by looking after a friend's 2-year old this morning, who Tamsin gets on very well with, and art/craft by doing some glass painting this afternoon.
I keep meaning to record, mostly just for my own benefit, Isabelle's speech at the moment. It is very limited, but so far she can clearly say 'Mama' (apparently aimed at anybody she loves!), see-saw, ta, 'peeeee' for Poppy (the dog), and shush. I also think she was saying 'down' this evening when she wanted to get out of her high-chair, and for the past week or so she's sounded for all the world like she's counting 'five, six, seven, eight...' although I can hardly believe it can be so. Bill has noticed it too.
It's blooming hard work, this motherhood thing, but I love it!
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Green fingers?
I can feel a whole new persona coming on, triggered off by Kris and her garden plan. Get this: I, Joanna, the woman with garden weeds past knee-height for the majority of the year, read gardening books off my SIL's shelf on Thursday evening and Friday morning, pulled gardening books off my own shelf on Friday evening, and have been OUT in the garden TODAY (in February, for heaven's sake!) and started digging a vegetable plot! I have also been to the Garden Centre, bought seed potatoes, pea seeds and compost, and have planted up some previously purchased tomato, strawberry and carrot seeds. Arrrghhh!! What is happening to me!!!???
Apart from that, it's been a very quiet and laid-back weekend. Isabelle's cough/cold has got worse and she was running a high temperature overnight, so we didn't go to church today. Tamsin has CBeebied and Nick Jr'd while I caught up on blogs and e-mail; we've played games, been food shopping, unpacked (mostly), done some baking (Snickerdoodles!) and generally just taken it fairly easy. It's nice to be home.
Apart from that, it's been a very quiet and laid-back weekend. Isabelle's cough/cold has got worse and she was running a high temperature overnight, so we didn't go to church today. Tamsin has CBeebied and Nick Jr'd while I caught up on blogs and e-mail; we've played games, been food shopping, unpacked (mostly), done some baking (Snickerdoodles!) and generally just taken it fairly easy. It's nice to be home.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
That was the week that was!
Back home from Melrose and as per usual last night I fell asleep while putting the girls to bed, albeit it was around 10pm as they had napped in the car, so no blogging last night.
In summary, we had a good week and I really enjoyed it, despite everything! And I have to say that that is a bit of a personal milestone for me as a confirmed emetophobic with a deep horror of all things vomit-related. In past times in such circumstances I would have been an anxious crying wreck and bailed out at the earliest opportunity as soon as I heard of the first D&Ver, (or in fact would never have booked in the first place after the tales of last year) but thanks to the wonders of modern psychopharmacology (aka a small dose of SSRIs) my phobic tendencies are minimised and I coped with it beautifully, I reckon!!!
The week started in a great way Stepping Off the Path at J&J's, which was a first for us and I was suitably impressed with the location, location, location. Tamsin was scared we would fall down the hill as we drove over the moors, and I was very glad I wasn't doing it in the dark. On arrival Tamsin immediately went off and played with C and M which was lovely to witness as she does have a tendency to cling to me in new places and with new people.
On Sunday I left J&J still packing while we made our fairly leisurely way up the country. We had 2 stops on the way and arrived at the Youth Hostel around 5.30pm, and all settled in happily, Tamsin being absolutely delighted to claim both top bunks as her personal space. If I remember correctly she seemed to do extremely well that first evening with going off and running about with various other girls, which makes me wonder why it became so much harder later in the week. Isabelle of course was delighted to toddle around contentedly and especially enjoyed communing with her triplet sisters from time to time.
After 2 full days of travelling Monday was a quiet day mostly in the Youth Hostel with a brisk walk into Melrose town and a visit to the Roman Trimontium exhibition, which I found educational at least, and I think Tamsin did too. I decided to postpone a walk round the Abbey till it was better weather and not raining, but as that never happened it will have to wait till a future opportunity.
By Tuesday and Wednesday Tamsin was refusing to go off and play with anyone else if it meant going away from me. She was extremely happy playing with SB and Becca especially and has declared that Becca is her best friend and she loves her :-) but nevertheless refused to leave my side most of the time. By Wednesday afternoon this was driving me to insanity, not helped by 2 or 3 nights of pretty poor sleep due to much bed-hopping between Tamsin and Isabelle's beds, and after an altercation where she kept hitting me because she wanted to sit on my knee and I said no (after having had her sitting there for a good 30 minutes already) she was dragged to the stairs for a time out and I returned to the dining room and burst into tears. Three cheers and a gold medal must be awarded to Barbara, who dispensed hugs and tea, and then took Isabelle and Tamsin off into the Common Room and probably stood with her back to the door to refuse to allow Tamsin to come and find me until I'd had some peace and quiet for an hour or two. You're a star, Barbara, and I owe you big time! Especially as she then repeated her fabulous child-kidnapping act the following day when Tamsin had to be prised off me while I was trying to rest in bed fighting off severe nausea having caught a touch of the stomach bug that was doing the rounds.
Towards the end of that day (Thursday) Barbara told me they wanted to leave because R was ill but she was only considering staying to help me out (see - told you she was a star!) so we hatched a plan that she would help me drive to Bill's sister's house that evening, but in the event, by the evening I was feeling much better and was quite fit to drive myself. So it was an early finish to the week for us but I am quite glad now as it gives us the whole weekend to unpack, sort out and generally return to normal while the girls maximise their Daddy time to make up for the past week.
The nausea returned in full-force as I drove south from my SIL's place, to the extent that I prepared towels next to me on the seat and had a pretty rough time at one stage when the feeling was at its height just while I was driving through roadworks and all the lay-bys were blocked off but thank heaven for some reason it all subsided and I managed to drive home, albeit with three longish stops, and arrived here around 7pm on Friday. In fact one of the stops was a bit expensive (but I won't say exactly how much because Bill will read this) because I stopped off at Meadowhall, never having been there before but thinking it would probably have a children's play area, and entered through Next and a bit of impulse-shopping later and my bank balance was noticeably lighter, but anyway, kids need clothes, don't they?!
My highlights of the week:
- Making and strengthening relationships, long chats with Leandra (very warm and funny woman!) and Kris's vegetable-plot planning session;
- Barbara - 'nuff said!
- Watching Tamsin play and giggle with lots of girls, and listening to their play-time conversations as they all gathered in our room;
- Watching Isabelle just toddle around contentedly like the gorgeous girl she is;
- The great food!
- Tamsin counting past 30 for the first time, and reaching all the way to 112, with only a little help!
- Quote from Tamsin on the drive home - "We're *starving* for Daddy, aren't we?"
It only remains for me to unpack the car (yes, still!), and insist that Bill comes with me next year, and we'll be all set!
In summary, we had a good week and I really enjoyed it, despite everything! And I have to say that that is a bit of a personal milestone for me as a confirmed emetophobic with a deep horror of all things vomit-related. In past times in such circumstances I would have been an anxious crying wreck and bailed out at the earliest opportunity as soon as I heard of the first D&Ver, (or in fact would never have booked in the first place after the tales of last year) but thanks to the wonders of modern psychopharmacology (aka a small dose of SSRIs) my phobic tendencies are minimised and I coped with it beautifully, I reckon!!!
The week started in a great way Stepping Off the Path at J&J's, which was a first for us and I was suitably impressed with the location, location, location. Tamsin was scared we would fall down the hill as we drove over the moors, and I was very glad I wasn't doing it in the dark. On arrival Tamsin immediately went off and played with C and M which was lovely to witness as she does have a tendency to cling to me in new places and with new people.
On Sunday I left J&J still packing while we made our fairly leisurely way up the country. We had 2 stops on the way and arrived at the Youth Hostel around 5.30pm, and all settled in happily, Tamsin being absolutely delighted to claim both top bunks as her personal space. If I remember correctly she seemed to do extremely well that first evening with going off and running about with various other girls, which makes me wonder why it became so much harder later in the week. Isabelle of course was delighted to toddle around contentedly and especially enjoyed communing with her triplet sisters from time to time.
After 2 full days of travelling Monday was a quiet day mostly in the Youth Hostel with a brisk walk into Melrose town and a visit to the Roman Trimontium exhibition, which I found educational at least, and I think Tamsin did too. I decided to postpone a walk round the Abbey till it was better weather and not raining, but as that never happened it will have to wait till a future opportunity.
By Tuesday and Wednesday Tamsin was refusing to go off and play with anyone else if it meant going away from me. She was extremely happy playing with SB and Becca especially and has declared that Becca is her best friend and she loves her :-) but nevertheless refused to leave my side most of the time. By Wednesday afternoon this was driving me to insanity, not helped by 2 or 3 nights of pretty poor sleep due to much bed-hopping between Tamsin and Isabelle's beds, and after an altercation where she kept hitting me because she wanted to sit on my knee and I said no (after having had her sitting there for a good 30 minutes already) she was dragged to the stairs for a time out and I returned to the dining room and burst into tears. Three cheers and a gold medal must be awarded to Barbara, who dispensed hugs and tea, and then took Isabelle and Tamsin off into the Common Room and probably stood with her back to the door to refuse to allow Tamsin to come and find me until I'd had some peace and quiet for an hour or two. You're a star, Barbara, and I owe you big time! Especially as she then repeated her fabulous child-kidnapping act the following day when Tamsin had to be prised off me while I was trying to rest in bed fighting off severe nausea having caught a touch of the stomach bug that was doing the rounds.
Towards the end of that day (Thursday) Barbara told me they wanted to leave because R was ill but she was only considering staying to help me out (see - told you she was a star!) so we hatched a plan that she would help me drive to Bill's sister's house that evening, but in the event, by the evening I was feeling much better and was quite fit to drive myself. So it was an early finish to the week for us but I am quite glad now as it gives us the whole weekend to unpack, sort out and generally return to normal while the girls maximise their Daddy time to make up for the past week.
The nausea returned in full-force as I drove south from my SIL's place, to the extent that I prepared towels next to me on the seat and had a pretty rough time at one stage when the feeling was at its height just while I was driving through roadworks and all the lay-bys were blocked off but thank heaven for some reason it all subsided and I managed to drive home, albeit with three longish stops, and arrived here around 7pm on Friday. In fact one of the stops was a bit expensive (but I won't say exactly how much because Bill will read this) because I stopped off at Meadowhall, never having been there before but thinking it would probably have a children's play area, and entered through Next and a bit of impulse-shopping later and my bank balance was noticeably lighter, but anyway, kids need clothes, don't they?!
My highlights of the week:
- Making and strengthening relationships, long chats with Leandra (very warm and funny woman!) and Kris's vegetable-plot planning session;
- Barbara - 'nuff said!
- Watching Tamsin play and giggle with lots of girls, and listening to their play-time conversations as they all gathered in our room;
- Watching Isabelle just toddle around contentedly like the gorgeous girl she is;
- The great food!
- Tamsin counting past 30 for the first time, and reaching all the way to 112, with only a little help!
- Quote from Tamsin on the drive home - "We're *starving* for Daddy, aren't we?"
It only remains for me to unpack the car (yes, still!), and insist that Bill comes with me next year, and we'll be all set!
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
I wonder how long it will be:
... before this happens here? We have been discussing the dilemma of what to do if bird flu comes to the UK. I would be very sad, but I think we would have to get rid of the chickens - I have already lost one of my children and I'm not prepared to gamble with the lives of any more for the sake of some chickens, no matter how enjoyable they are to have in the garden.
So 'bird flu' has been part of the educational conversations we have been having with Tamsin in the past couple of days. Other stuff has included reading "The wonderful way babies are made" at bedtime tonight, some CBeebies website games, some lovely painting this afternoon, and ..... er..... complete mind blank about everything else, although I know there has been more.
I am too tired again to think clearly about the past couple of days. Blurgh.
So 'bird flu' has been part of the educational conversations we have been having with Tamsin in the past couple of days. Other stuff has included reading "The wonderful way babies are made" at bedtime tonight, some CBeebies website games, some lovely painting this afternoon, and ..... er..... complete mind blank about everything else, although I know there has been more.
I am too tired again to think clearly about the past couple of days. Blurgh.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Miracles do happen!
Bill hates London. He said to my nephew a couple of weeks ago that he'd really rather never set foot in London again for the rest of his life. Tamsin loves London. She wants to go to the Science Museum again, and to the Natural History Museum, and the Tower of London, and see Buckingham Palace (but she doesn't want to see the Queen!). She really wants to go for her birthday treat (in June). The odds of fulfilling this dream were not looking good.
But, somehow, Bill seemed to think it was a good idea. And agreed.
And then, I got a £10 per night Travelodge booking, on the M4 near Heathrow admittedly, but even so, £10 ......!
So Tamsin will get her dream birthday! Amazing!
But, somehow, Bill seemed to think it was a good idea. And agreed.
And then, I got a £10 per night Travelodge booking, on the M4 near Heathrow admittedly, but even so, £10 ......!
So Tamsin will get her dream birthday! Amazing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
